Hey everyone - I'm quite new to underwater photography, but not to photography in general.

I just took my new Ikelite housing, along with a Tokina 11-16 lens in an 8" dome port out for a spin yesterday in some pretty silty fresh water. I ended up with some pretty interesting shots, however an interesting occurance resulted in most of my photos. There is a reflection of the front of my lens in almost all of my photos.

After calling Ikelite, I was told that I was shooting at an 'improper angle' to the sun, and that if I correct that, it should be rectified. Although I can see the validity to this, I find it hard to believe that all 66 photos were taken at the same 'improper angle' to the sun.

I've gone through a couple other ideas in my head, and I'm left with only one thing I think may help. So to make a short story long..... Should I remove the UV filter from the lens!?!?!?

Yes remove the UV filter. Also you might want to take a black sharpie and blacken out any white print on the front of the lens. Some people use black gaffer tape. It could also be light leaking from your cameras flash, there are topics about that here on Wetpixel, you could do a search.

Hey, thanks Paul, and sorry for the delay in replying. Here's a sample image that I sent to Stoo earlier this week. It of course has no artistic merit, or any value at all for that matter, but it's a good exaggerated example of what I'm seeing in my photos.

The very bright ring on the outer portion of the frame is a chromed ring on the outer portion of the lens. The rest of the rings are just reflections from the face of the lens itself.

PS - I was out again last night, sans UV filter. It helped quite a bit, but still noticeable. Break out the gaffer tape from the basement, I guess!!

This thread is interesting to read. This is one of my first photos (straight off the camera and downsized) from an outing with my Canon 5DII in Sealux housing. You can see the diver is being cradled by rings.

I deduced quickly that these were the rings from inside the dome, and that their appearance is related to aiming at the sun. I can try the black gaffer tape trick too. In the end will it be a case of working out at what shooting angles to the sun these appear and then avoiding that?

An update on my dome port ring reflection issue... I managed to get my hands on some black Gorilla grip tape. I cut 1.5 inch strips and overlapped them neatly around the inside of my dome port, covering the ring tracks. Last week I went out photographing sea lions and whale sharks in silty water with a tonne of sunshine beaming down. In almost all of my images I can't see any problems with the ring reflections. There is the odd photo where I can see small signs of a reflection aberration, but for the most part it was okay. Although this wasn't a scientific study, I feel pretty certain that pre-taping I would have had a huge issue with ring reflections shooting in these conditions, angled towards the sun. So I feel the taping has made a big improvement. :-)

Good luck. It's incredibly frustrating and I feel your pain. Nearly impossible to Photoshop them out.

the "spot healing tool", i think its called, in the raw editor of PS i find Very good for this.! Used it many times to fix this problem before. Takes abit time if there is much to fix, but it does its job very good i think

Well, I've got some news, as it did for Alison, the tape also worked for me. But it wasn't totally bullet proof. I was still getting some reflections. However, with some practice, and research, I think I have solved the issue!!

Such a beginner mistake, that it was probably the reason why no one mentioned it here - I feel a little slow! I had my strobes waaaaaay too far forward, and light from them was getting directly into the dome. With the adjustment, I think I may now be problem free!

My reflection issues still exist if I shoot at certain angles to the sun. It's not a strobe issue for me because I wasn't using any strobes. Too much sun in the dome port is definitely causing obnoxious ring reflections that really wreck an image.

Hope you have the issue sorted out….I had a similar problem in my Ikelite housing for my Canon HV30 video camera where the reflections popped up.

The solution I came up with was based on the tests I did by holding my hand over different parts of the housing whilst looking at the monitor….and there were times when the reflections disappeared. The only explanation I could come up with was that some of the light that got into the housing due to it being clear would bounce around and hit the lens at an angle where the rings/markings would show up.

I gaffer taped an area on top of the housing and a few inches around the front of the housing…haven't had an issue since! Doesn't look great, but the video footage is fantastic!

Hey guys, thanks for continuing to post, sorry I've not been around for a bit - busy with land photography this winter season...

Brett, it's funny you mention that. Stoo suggested that it might be that exact problem. I brushed him off thinking it was impossible, because the port itself is black (not letting in any light), and the space between the lens, and the port body is soooo small that I figured it was impossible that was causing the issue.

But now here you've confirmed that it may just be that. Of course, Ikelite will not admit to that! Their housings are just perfect!

I guess I'll have to try that now too. Well, I'll be in the pool for a little while, so I'll have lots of time to play around with it, and see if I can't isolate the problem. Thanks, gents!